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Clinton releases delegates

In an emotional meeting leading up to the
Democratic roll call of the states, Hillary Rodham Clinton released
her convention delegates Wednesday to vote for certain presidential
nominee Barack Obama.

Many in the crowded ballroom yelled back, "No!"

Clinton, speaking a couple of hours before the nomination vote
was scheduled, would not instruct her followers on how to vote.

"I am not telling you what to do," she said. "You've come
here from so many different places having made this journey and
feeling in your heart what is right for you to do."

Sen. Hillary ClintonPAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

Clinton told her loyal followers: "I want you to know that this
has been a joy. Yes, we didn't make it. But, boy, did we have a
good time."

A roll call vote was scheduled for later in the afternoon after
brief nominating speeches for both Clinton and Obama. The former
rivals negotiated a plan that would cut off the split roll call
after a few states - perhaps by Clinton herself - in favor of
acclamation for Obama.

But delegates did not have specific instructions on how the
process would work or which states would participate, even as they
received their ballots Wednesday morning. With Clinton's
encouragement during the meeting and in a speech to the convention
Tuesday night, a swell of Clinton delegates said they would support
Obama.

"If she can get up there and put everything aside and say she's
supporting Barack Obama with her whole heart, then it's up to us to
do the same thing," said Clinton delegate Shirley McCombs of
Illinois.

Kathleen Krehbiel, Clinton's Iowa vote-counter, said she made up
her mind to switch and believed most Clinton loyalists also were
coming around.

"I did not want to see a floor fight," she said. "I don't see
any further reason to continue to carry out a pretense that she's a
candidate. She's not."

Not all Clinton supporters were on board. Sonja Jaquez Lewis, a
Clinton delegate from Colorado, said she and others may walk out if
Clinton is denied a roll call.

"If we don't have an official roll call vote, state-by-state,
it is going to reopen a wound," Lewis said.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine said Democrats from his state, which
Clinton won, voted in private to unanimously support Obama.

"I think it is reflective of the unity that I sense that is
building across the party," Corzine said. "That doesn't mean
there won't be outliers that are still heartbroken their favorite
candidate didn't make it."

Clinton on the podiumPAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter, said in an AP
interview that he will vote for Obama "wistfully but
enthusiastically." But Rendell estimated somewhere around 10 or 12
Clinton delegates from his state weren't "going to be able to
bring themselves to vote for anybody other than Senator Clinton."

He insisted that's not a slight of Obama, rather a reflection of
their hard work for Clinton and their deep admiration for her and
her bid to become the first woman president.

"Even though Hillary tells us not to spend any time thinking
about what might have been," he said, pausing as tears welled in
his eyes, "I'm sure all of us were thinking about what might have
been last night."

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, an Obama supporter, said
Clinton's challenge in getting her delegates to come on board with
Obama "may be the biggest test of her leadership."

"If she's not a strong enough leader to get her followers to do
what's right for America, then that would surprise me," McCaskill
told the AP. "I think they are going to follow her lead, and her
lead was very crystal clear last night."